Topic 96 The best way of reducing stress

They say that "Life is a big headache on a long noisy road." This statement truly explains life nowadays. Life in the twenty first century is full of stress. From dawn to dusk, everyone has to go through a rigorous schedule (жесткий график). Even children are not exempt (ed не освобождены) from this rush (напряжение, спешка, суета). Everyday there are deadlines to meet, reports to write, bills to pay, meetings to attend, papers to submit, etc.,. Life is a never-ending race to most people. The everyday grind builds up stress and fatigue (Повседневной рутиннa накапливает стресс и усталость). Stress Reduction has become a priority with individuals as well as organizations. People have different ways of escaping the stress and difficulties of modern life. In my opinion the best ways of reducing stress are meditation, exercise and reading books.

He was obviously in an exceedingly good humour and perhaps a trifle exhilarated. - Он был, по-видимому, в превосходнейшем и даже капельку в возбужденном состоянии духа.

Meditation is an effective way to overcome (для преодоления) stress. Meditation not only soothes the mind from tension (успокаивает ум от напряжения) but also regulates heartbeat and blood pressures. It helps an individual in attaining inner peace (она помогает человеку в достижении внутреннего мира) and equilibrium. Meditation helps in tapping a person's inner potential and opens his mind to the universal spirit.

Exercise is another way to reduce stress. Exercising not only promotes health but also improves thinking. When a person exercises the muscles in the body get a workout (получите тренировку) that in turn burn fat. The burning of fat releases stored energy and the person has an exhilarating feeling (веселящий, бодрящий, возбуждающий). This feeling helps the person to overcome stress. Thus Exercise is very useful tool in stress reduction.

Reading also has a beneficial effect on individuals in stress. Reading a great book is very therapeutic to a person with stress. Reading helps the mind to look at other things and reduces the focus on the person's difficulties. Elegant poetry and beautiful prose can soothe a person's mind and help him reduce stress in his life.

In conclusion, Meditation, Exercise and reading are the best ways to reduce stress.

Topic 97 Teachers' pay

Education is one of the holiest occupations in my view (почитаемых профессий, на мой взгляд). I disagree with that teachers should be paid according to how much their students learn. Although teachers are important for students, the most important part for learning knowledge is students themselves.

Different teachers has? different style, so it is hard to evaluate how well each teacher teaches according to how much students learn. As nobody would have the same character, teachers also have their own teaching styles such as humorous, gentle, strict, to name a few. Maybe some students like humorous teachers, while others prefer a gentle one. But probably the students of a strict teacher could give good results in their study, even though these teachers teach the same thing. We could not say that the strict teacher should be paid higher than the gentle teacher, since we know that the students have learned more because they were afraid.

On the other hand, how much or how well students learn depends on students themselves. In a school, it is easy to see that some students are with high marks, while some others have lower marks. A teacher is a person who direct students how to learn. Students should do much more works. The more attention students pay, the more knowledge they learn. The hard-workers probably get higher scores. Students' learning results depend on individual students' intellectual abilities and the time and energy that they put into learning.

Sometimes it has nothing to do what how well the teachers taught (Иногда это не имеет никакого ~разницы, насколько хорошо учителя учат). In addition, knowledge that students learn not only comes from the teachers, but also from many sources. Family influence, extracurricular reading (внеклассное чтение) and out-class teaching are some of the sources that can provide students with knowledge. In sum, although teachers are important in students' education and learning, there are many other factors that decide how well students' learn. So it is unfair (Так что это несправедливо) that teachers are paid according to how much their students learn.